According to Don Foreman :
But Fitch's experiments in tuning were for the purpose of making the lathe work *better*. The time it took to spin the spindle up, or to reverse it was shortened by the tuning -- especially if the lathe was set to a high gear or belt setting.
So -- if you need to reverse your lathe quickly -- such as when tapping with a releasing tap holder -- you will get better behavior from a tuned converter than from an un-tuned one.
Enjoy, DoN.
Of course this is true, and I suspect that mine would plug reverse much better if I tuned it properly.
And I do this a fair amount, I've recently been using my metric transpose gears, so I need to leave the halfnuts engaged when threading.
Jim
Could be. My lathe has a footbrake that stops it NOW with a stomp while threading or tapping. My mill also has a spindle brake. I about never plug-reverse. I know better machinists than I that do.
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